Judy drew a long breath, then she put out her hand
as if to make him a promise.

“No, not while grandfather needs me,”
she said, “not while he needs me, Doctor.”

CHAPTER XII

LORDLY LAUNCELOT

The children of the town of Fairfax never forgot that
afternoon at Judge Jameson’s. For years
they had peeped through the hedge at the fascinating
Cupid of the Fountain, but never had one of them put
foot in the old garden, with its mysterious nooks
and formal paths, which lay in the shadow of the Great
House.

But to-day with its gipsy band playing wild music,
with its gaily decorated tables, its awe-inspiring
Perkins,—­who with his satellites offered
food fit for the gods,—­with its riot of
spring color, it was beyond their wildest dreams.

Before they went home they all assembled again in
the great dining-room from which the chairs had been
taken, and on the polished floor every one, old and
young, danced the Virginia Reel, the Judge leading
with Miss Mary, and Mrs. Batcheller bringing up at
the end of the line with Jimmie Jones.

“It was a success, wasn’t it,” said
Launcelot, when the children had trooped away, and
Anne and Mrs. Batcheller and the smiling Miss Mary
had been driven home in the Judge’s carriage.

“Yes,” said Judy, abstractedly, watching
the musicians, who were having their refreshments
under the lilac bushes.

“What handsome faces they have,” she said,
“so dark and wild. And their lives are
so free—­grandfather says they just roam
around from place to place, living in the woods and
picking up a little money here and there. He
says their camp is just outside, and when he was driving
yesterday, he saw one of them playing and asked them
if they wouldn’t come here to-day.”

When the gipsies had finished they rose and went down
the path towards the gate. They were talking
and laughing with a vivacious play of feature and
a recklessness of gesture that proclaimed them the
unconscious children of nature.

“How I wish I could go with them,” said
Judy, impulsively, as the young leader of the band
took off his hat and waved them a debonair “good-bye.”
“How I wish I could go!”